People ask a chatbot
before they search.
Some of your customers now describe their problem to an AI and take whichever business it names. Nobody can buy a place in that answer. What you can do is be the business that is easy to find, consistent everywhere, and clearly described — which is the same work that has always won local search.
Nobody can guarantee this.
You cannot pay to be recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI answers, and anyone selling you that is selling you something they do not control. These systems change constantly and draw on sources no one outside them can see in full.
What is true: they lean heavily on the same signals local search has always used — an accurate business profile, consistent details across the web, real reviews, and pages that plainly state what you do and where you do it. Businesses that get those right tend to turn up more often. That is a tendency, not a mechanism, and I will describe it to you that way.
One job, two ends of the same rope.
These are not competing services, and you should not buy both as though they were. Local SEO is the foundation; this adds the work that specifically helps an AI describe your business correctly.
Local SEO
- Getting found in Google Search and Maps
- Google Business Profile, categories, hours, photos
- Service and location pages that rank
- Reviews, citations, directory consistency
- Technical fixes: speed, mobile, crawlability
Already part of what I do. See the Local SEO service.
What this adds
- Structured data so machines read your business, not just people
- Pages that answer questions in the words people ask them
- Making the facts about you agree everywhere they appear
- Checking what AI tools currently say about your business, and correcting what is wrong
- Watching how much traffic now arrives from AI sources
Unglamorous, and it is what moves.
- Google Business Profile — categories, service area, hours, photos, the lot filled in properly
- Consistent details — the same name, address and phone wherever they appear
- Service and location pages for the things you do and the towns you cover
- Schema markup so your details are machine-readable
- Clear content that answers real questions instead of padding
- Reviews, asked for within the platforms’ rules — never bought, never incentivised
- Directory and citation cleanup where old listings disagree
- Technical SEO — speed, mobile, structure, indexing
- Measurement of organic and local visibility, reported honestly
- AI visibility checks — asking the tools what they say about you now
A landscaper covers six towns but the website only mentions the one the office is in. Two directories still list a phone number from four years ago, and the Google profile has one category set.
The work is dull: a page for each town that actually says something, the old numbers corrected, the profile categories and service area filled in, schema added so the details are machine-readable. Then asking the AI tools what they say about the business before and after, and watching the search console for which towns start appearing.
Invented to illustrate the work. Not a customer, and not a measured result — outcomes depend on the competition, the area and a great deal nobody controls.
Businesses that live or die by being found locally.
- Contractors serving several towns
- Local professional offices
- Restaurants and hospitality
- Anyone competing against three similar businesses in local search
- Businesses whose details on the web are years out of date
Setup
The audit and the fixes: profile, pages, schema, citations, technical issues. A one-off piece of work with a defined end.
Ongoing
Monthly local SEO if you want it maintained — new pages, review generation, reporting, and watching what changes. See the pricing page.
Platform fees
Usually none. This is mostly work rather than software. If a specific tool is worth paying for, I will tell you what it is and why before you buy it.
Before you ask me.
No. Nobody can, and nobody should tell you they can. What I can do is make your business accurate and consistent everywhere these systems read, which is what tends to help.
It overlaps heavily, by design. Local SEO is the foundation and most of the work; this adds structured data, question-shaped content and checking what AI tools currently say about you. If you only buy one thing, buy the Local SEO.
Local search moves slowly and unevenly — weeks to months, and it varies by town and competitor. Anyone giving you a date is guessing.
Search Console and your Business Profile numbers, compared to before, plus asking the AI tools the same questions over time. I will show you the real figures including the flat ones.
No. It breaks platform rules, it is obvious to customers, and it can get a profile suspended. Asking happy customers properly is allowed and works.
The audit and fixes are quoted per business. Ongoing local SEO is on the pricing page. No new prices are invented here.
Want to know what the AI tools say about you now?
I can check what currently comes back when they are asked about your kind of business in your area, and tell you honestly whether there is anything worth fixing.